Apparently it bugged the young Newton that the meanings of words were determined haphazardly. He thought it would be a vast improvement if there was a more orderly formula that would let people know what a given word meant just by hearing it. As Newton put it: “[L]et the names of the same sorte of things begin with the same letter: as of Instruments with s; Beasts with t; The soules passions with b, etc.”
via Gizmodo
